Can anyone tell me about atrophy please? My left calf is smaller than my right one, this is where I get all of the cramping and fasiculations in left leg and foot also. My gp agreed it is smaller so I have blood work arranged and waiting for emg appointment.

Hi! It's been a few years since I heard from you, how are you? Nope she didn't say it was atrophy, she just said "yes I can see its smaller"I stopped listening for a while after that and had an internal break down!It is the left calf that have the twitches and cramp in, it's very sore too, when I walk up the stairs it's really quite painful. I have continuous twitching in my left toes, it's pulling them up so maybe that has something to do with it, who knows. I'm having bloods done in the morning.

Yes, not been here (amongst the tumbleweed!) for a while. I'm doing absolutely fine. Twitching lots but fine.

I understand why you are so worried but with your history it would seem like the chance of this being anything truly nasty is infinitesimaly small. You are probably at greater statistical risk driving to get the blood test than having a terminal neurological condition! It's just difficult to see that when you are caught up in the panic, I know it was for me.

Yes it definitely gets a hold of me and then I'm sucked into that panic phase again!Did you have an emg? What was it that out your mind at rest?It doesn't help that we can google anything! The dr says twitching isn't a first symptom but then the Internet tells you stories of people where twitching was there only symptom for years! That's when the panic sets in.I also struggle as no dr I've seen seems to know about bfs, the majority haven't even heard of it! I read on the Internet it's medical jargon!

Yes, I had an EMG but sensed it was more to put my mind at rest than actually being useful for the consultant (who knows what ALS looks like and twitching isn't it!).

Depends exactly what blood tests you had but most probably, if atrophy was your concern, one that looks for muscle damage. If the bloods were normal then you don't have it.

I'm a scientist (but with no medical background) and I think I was ultimately able to look at all the evidence (real evidence, not any old bit of anecdotal nonsense on the www) and the conclusion is pretty clear.... twitching is just twitching. There is probably a range of extents to which people twitch (from none to a lot) and it is perfectly harmless. Stress and tiredness increase twitching (which is not to say that all twitching is caused by these two factors). Google probably also increases twitching

I know this could sound cruel and uncaring but the real problem isn't the twitching, it's being able to accept that there is nothing deadly going on. Not easy, but almost certainly the answer for 99.999% of the people here (or on the FB equivalent). I hope you have got some comfort from the blood tests.

Thank you for your kind reply. I completely agree with you regarding dr Google, what a total nightmare it is being able to find out about literally anything! I had lots of bloods including ck however I've googled that ( as you do ) and actually realised it doesn't mean much with regards to the dreaded.I'm feeling confused as I was doing so so well but still twitching, I was completely fine with this until the cramp started and that's when the anxiety set in again. I've not really thought about it the last 2 years, I've had a beautiful baby boy who has kept my mind off things.It's so so hard to get my anxiety under control but I don't want to have medication for it.Dr said I could have emg but she hasn't done the refferal as my bloods are normal, so confusing!